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Tuesday, 4 August 2015

A very difficult decision, but yes, it is time for me to say goodbye. I’ve been blogging
now since 2006 and 9 years is pretty good going but my heart just isn't in it anymore. This is down to a few reasons but mostly my health - the lupus keeps
acting up and I find I just don’t have the energy or time. (Other food bloggers
will know how much work goes into just one blog post!) As you can see from the
above photo this isn’t down to a lack of ideas – those are all my recipes that
were waiting to be blogged but I never got around to, shamefully just sitting
in a pile!

I started this blog to simply share my recipes, hoping they
would help out other vegans, new vegans and especially the vegan curious to show how easy and versatile a vegan diet is. I hope it did just that :-)

Mostly, I just want to thank all my readers for your kind
words and support over the years. For those who took the time to email me or
comment, to help promote the blog or a post etc…and all those who simply liked and followed. This blog wouldn't have taken
off without you all so – THANK YOU!

As for me, I've been wanting to seriously scale back my ‘online’
time for a while now so will be doing just that. So, no more social media for me and I'll be spending much more time out in
the garden and, when I am able to, working on the house….we built it 5 years ago and are nowhere
near finished! The blog and all the recipes will of course remain up and I
still kindly ask that the recipes are not reposted/reprinted but rather are
just linked to instead.

Lastly, who knows? If I miss blogging too much and feel
better then I may start it up again but for now I’ll say goodbye.........but first, one more recipe! What, you didn't think I'd leave without one did you? ;-)

Mocha Cake • Coffee Buttercream • Chocolate Ganache

I actually made this back in May for my husbands birthday - see? I really can't get around to things anymore, lol....anyway, some of you might remember that we've been suspecting gluten is bothering him so I had to make a gluten free vegan cake for him. I had a good search online but in the end decided to "de-glutenize" my basic chocolate cake recipe (which is just the standard wacky cake recipe) with a lot of help from my friend Katie who is a great chef and has been cooking and baking gluten-free for many years now. Thanks Katie!

Well, it turned out beautifully with great texture and flavour. My son remarked that "no one would guess this was gluten-free, it just tastes like regular chocolate cake" - which is just what I was after :-) Unfortunately I have used a product here that may be available only in the UK and Ireland but I'm sure alternative ones exist. To replace the flour I use a mixture of gluten-free oat flour, sorghum flour and Doves Farm's Gluten-Free white flour mix. - a mix of rice, potato, tapioca, maize and buckwheat. So hopefully you can find something similar if you can't buy that, but I'm sure any gluten-free white flour mix will work here :-)

Gluten-Free Mocha Celebration Cake:Chocolate Cake240g Doves Farm's gluten-free white flour mix (see above for details)70g sorghum flour70g oat flour300g caster sugar1 tsp salt2 tsp baking soda1 tsp xanthan gum60g cocoa powder3 tsp vanilla extract160ml vegetable oil2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar480ml cold coffee Grease and line two 7 or 8 inch round cake pans - set aside. Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Combine all dry ingredients and whisk well. Combine all wet ingredients and whisk well. Pour the wet into the dry and using the mixer beat for 5 minutes, until really smooth. Pour evenly into the two pans, level them and place in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool but leave them in the pans, they will split while cooling if you remove them. When cool remove from the pans, wrap firmly in cling film (again to prevent splitting).Frosting:175g vegan margarine 430g icing sugar2 ½ tsp instant espresso powder1 Tbsp hot waterDissolve the espresso powder in the hot water and set aside. Beat the margarine until light then start adding the icing sugar, beat well each time. When it starts getting dry add some of the espresso mixture. Continue adding the icing sugar and espresso mix until it is all added. You should have a soft but firm buttercream, if you find it a bit runny simply add some more icing sugar. If it is too stiff add a drop of dairy free milk.Chocolate Ganache:100g dark chocolate (70%), chopped85ml soy cream10g extra virgin coconut oil½ Tbsp Kahlua Place the chocolate in a small bowl. In a small saucepan heat up the cream and fat until it melts and it all just comes to the boil. Quickly pour over the chocolate, leave it a few seconds then whisk it up until smooth and glossy. Whisk in the kahlua. Leave it out at room temperature, stirring now and again until it thickens up slightly. It will be too runny to pour over the cake right away, you want it pourable but thick enough that it will only slowly run down the sides. Don't be impatient here, it can take awhile to get thick enough to pour over.Assembly:Place 1 cake onto cake stand and spread with the frosting, fairly thickly. Add the other cake on top then frost the sides and top. When the ganache is ready spoon it over top and spread it out until it just starts to run down the sides of the cake. The crucial thing now is to get it into the fridge. I left mine out and my kitchen was very warm which eventually caused the ganache to separate from the frosting a bit. Once I got it in the fridge this was no longer a problem though, so make sure you get it in right away!

Saturday, 6 June 2015

Well, with all the recipe testing with the last post (Hawaiian Grilled Tofu with Macadamia Nut Coconut Rice) I've found myself with many open tins of coconut milk to experiment with! We do love Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce so I though I would try them together here with rice noodles and veggies. There is a bit of global inspiration going on here, haha - but aren't those the best dishes?

The star of the show here is obviously the sauce. Tomatoes, onions and garlic are roasted in the oven with a bit of olive oil then the whole lot is blended until smooth with some medium heat Nando's Peri-Peri sauce and full fat coconut milk. It has a perfect amount of heat, not too much, is super creamy and has great flavour - perfect in a noodle dish such as this one with lots of crisp veggies and crunchy roasted peanuts. I further added some tamari to the stir fry as the flavour of the sauce gets toned down quite a bit here but the tamari lifts it right back up.

Obviously you can use whatever veg you like in this, I just used whatever I had in the house at the time that I thought would go well. Baby corn and beansprouts would be awesome here and you can swap with any type of noodles you like. The sauce recipe makes a lot, about 4-6 servings depending on how big a serving you like or how creamy you want it. Stir- fry recipe serves between 2-4, again depending on your choice of portion size :-)

Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F. In a roasting tin add the tomatoes, shallots and garlic, drizzle over the olive oil, salt and pepper and mix well. Roast for 20 minutes shaking the pan now and again for even roasting. Tip into a blender with the peri peri, and the coconut milk and blend until really smooth and creamy. Makes 2 cups which should give you 4-6 servings.

And for the record, I am still absolutely in love with my Froothie Optimum 9400. This was silky smooth in absolute seconds! It's made my life so much easier :-)

Rice Noodle Stir-Fry with Peri-Peri Coconut Cream Sauce:

150g Thai rice noodles

½ Tbsp coconut oil

100g broccoli, cut into florets and par boil

60g mangetout, halved on the bias

60g carrot, julienned

60g red pepper, sliced thin

50g spinach, sliced

2 spring onions, finely chopped

20g roasted peanuts, chopped

1 - 2 Tbsp tamari, to taste (or soy sauce for not gluten-free)

1/2 of the Peri Peri Coconut Cream Sauce

Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the rice noodles, push down into the water, give it a stir then turn off the heat and put the lid on. Let it sit for 10 minutes off the heat then drain and rinse under cold water.

Par boil the broccoli for a couple of minutes until just fork tender and bright green and drain, run some cold water over them.

In a large wok heat the coconut oil and add the carrots, peppers and mangetout. Stir fry until tender crisp. Add the broccoli and heat through. Add the noodles, sauce and 1 Tbp of tamari/soy sauce and heat through. Taste and add more tamari/soy sauce if need be. (I added 1 Tbsp and served the dish with some tamari on the table where I did drizzle a *little* more on mine). Stir in most of the spring onions and peanuts. Serve with the remaining spring onions and peanuts sprinkled over top.

Serves 2-4 depending on your appetite!

♥

Disclaimer: this post contains affiliated links to Froothie. Any blender purchased through the link sends a little commission my way which helps to support the blog here, so, thank you! All views expressed are my own however :-)

Saturday, 30 May 2015

Well, I figured it was about time I took a break from the cookies and finally posted a savoury dish - and a whole meal this time! I've been absolutely loving this lately, in fact it's been my lunch most of the past week :-) The tofu is marinated in a gorgeous mixture of tamari, pineapple juice, coconut milk and seasoning then grilled until nicely singed. The rice is short grain brown rice baked in a mixture of water and coconut milk with spring onions and toasted macadamia nuts stirred in at the end....and for the record I'm always going to make my rice this way from now on....it just turns out effortlessly perfect. Lastly I also threw some pineapple on the grill as a side dish and served it all with some of the leftover marinade as a sauce. I also served mine with a virgin pina colada (as it was lunch and I'm not that bad!) A real one would be perfect with this for dinner :-)

First, the tofu: I was inspired here by the "Hawaiian Grilled Chicken" recipe by The Girl Who Ate Everything. Most of the time when I am looking for a new tofu marinade I search meat marinades as they work wonderfully and this one is gorgeous! I did make a few changes however, I swapped the water with pineapple juice for more Hawaiian flavour, reduced the brown sugar to make up for that, added some smoked paprika, increased the sesame oil a tad (as I love it) and left the spring onions for the rice.

This is seriously amazing tofu!! I left it to marinade about an hour, grilled with some coconut oil and brushed more marinade on while grilling and served with more marinade to drizzle (or spoon) over while eating because it is that good. (I even drizzled it over my rice and yes....dipped the pineapple into it. No shame!

Second, the rice: here I also took advice from Christy at The Girl Who Ate Everything as she recommended serving the chicken with coconut rice and she suggested just swapping half the water you cook the rice in with coconut milk. However, I got to thinking this would be nice baked as it would accentuate the creaminess of the coconut milk in there AND it means while you are busy grilling the tofu the rice can just get on with baking in the oven - so much easier! So, I've based this recipe on Alton Brown's recipe for Baked Brown Rice but swapped the butter with coconut oil, replaced some of the water with coconut milk and used short grain brown rice.

It turns out perfect every time and tastes absolutely amazing! I further added some sliced spring onions and chopped toasted macadamia nuts to keep the Hawaiian theme going. The crunch and flavour of the nuts in there is wonderful :-)

Grilled Hawaiian Tofu:

Yields 2 servings

200g tofu, medium firm

¼ cup / 60ml tamari for gluten-free or soy sauce

¼ cup / 60ml pineapple juice

2 Tbsp light brown sugar

¼ tsp smoked paprika

1 clove garlic, minced

½ tsp toasted sesame oil

100ml full fat coconut milk (6 Tbsp + 2 tsp)

2 tsp coconut oil to fry

Slice the tofu into 4 thin rectangles, about 1cm then press between paper towels to remove as much water as possible. Repeat with more paper towels if necessary. When they are fairly dry, pierce all over with a fork to help them absorb the marinade and place them in a dish and pour over the marinade. Please note that all the following photos are from me making just 1 serving of the tofu and rice...

Leave this to marinade for at least 1 hour, flipping them once or twice. I didn't refrigerate mine as the coconut milk thickens up too much in the fridge.

Preheat a grill pan until very hot and add the coconut oil, brush it all over as it melts then remove the tofu from the marinade and place on the grill pan. While the tofu is cooking also slice a pineapple into wedges (leave the skin on) and pop them on the grill as well. Don't try to flip the tofu until it is well grilled as they will stick if they are not ready to flip.

Once flipped, brush with a little more marinade and if you want criss cross marks like I did flip again the other way on both sides. Turn over the pineapple when ready as well. Transfer any remaining marinade into 2 little serving bowls to serve with the dish.

Baked Macadamia Nut Coconut Rice:

¾ cup / 150g short grain brown rice, rinsed

1¼ cup / 300ml water

½ cup / 125ml full fat coconut milk

2 tsp coconut oil or macadamia nut oil, I used coconut

½ tsp salt

•

2 spring onions, finely chopped

30g macadamia nuts, chopped and toasted (about 3 Tbsp)

Chive flowers, optional but recommended

Preparing the macadamia nuts: (you can do this while the rice is baking)....

Chop some unsalted macadamia nuts, not too fine - it's nice to have the crunch in there!

Place in a dry frying pan and toast until lightly golden brown. Inevitably the smaller bits will get golden before the big pieces. That's fine - just don't let them burn. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

For the rice: preheat oven to 190C/375ºF. Rinse the rice well and place in a suitably sized baking dish. Bring the water, coconut milk, oil and salt to the boil in a small saucepan. Pour this over the rice, give it a stir and cover tightly with foil.

Pop this into the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. Now, mine is always spot on 1 hour but for your first time making this, as all ovens are a bit different, I suggest giving it a look at 50 minutes just to make sure it hasn't baked dry. If it has simply add a splash more hot water and give it a stir, recover with foil and bake until the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed.

Add the sliced spring onions and toasted macadamia nuts and give it a stir. I also highly recommend adding some chive flowers if you have them here - they are just so pretty and taste great in the rice :-)

To plate up: divide the rice, tofu and pineapple among 2 plates with the serving bowl of sauce and scatter over some more chive flowers. Enjoy!

Note: these figures include all of the marinade which you are unlikely to use (no, even I didn't!). 920mg of the sodium figures there are coming from the tamari/soy sauce so don't worry about the high number as you will actually be using much less :-)

Monday, 18 May 2015

Now you'll have to forgive me for posting almost the same recipe as my last post but I've developed a gluten-free version of the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and these are SO good I had to get this recipe up right away :-) Recently my husband has been suspecting gluten, or at least wheat, is possibly causing him some problems. I've been having fun adapting recipes and making gluten-free meals at dinner but I also knew I had to make those cookies gluten-free for him. I mean they JUST came into our lives!!

I am so happy with how these turned out, I suspect no one would guess these are vegan let alone gluten-free. Now I don't have a lot, or any, experience with gluten-free baking but hey - these worked! I've simply swapped the flour with a mixture of gluten-free oat flour and cornstarch here and that's all they needed. The oats give a great oatmeal cookie kind of flavour which goes wonderfully with the peanut butter and chocolate. As you can see, I've also crammed these cookies with the highest possible amount of chocolate chips that could fit in there! Of course, you can always reduce them but I'm not sure why you would want to do that - ha! ;-)

• For the oat flour I simply made my own by blending gluten-free oats in my fab Optimum 9400 Blender. It took seconds. You can buy gluten-free oat flour but I would assume my way is a lot cheaper.

• I used regular smooth peanut butter - the type with added sugar and salt here.

• As mentioned above - there are a LOT of chocolate chips in these, if you prefer less simply halve the amount. They'll still taste great :-)

• My vegan butter, peanut butter and chocolate chips were all naturally gluten-free but of course, do check your labels.

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:Yields 12 cookies3 Tbsp vegan butter (45g)1/3 cup smooth peanut butter (80g)1½ Tbsp light brown sugar1½ Tbsp white sugar½ tsp vanilla½ cup gluten-free oat flour (60g)2 Tbsp cornstarch (cornflour in UK/IRE)1/8 tsp salt¼ tsp gluten-free baking powder1 Tbsp water½ cup vegan dark chocolate chips (100g)Preheat the oven to 190C / 375F and line a baking sheet with baking paper.In a small bowl whisk together the oat flour, cornstarch, salt and baking powder.In a larger bowl beat the butter and peanut butter together until really smooth. Add the sugars and beat until light and well mixed, beat in the vanilla.Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture with the water and mix until it all comes together. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.Take about a heaped tablespoon of the dough and using your hands squeeze and roll into a smooth ball then place it on the baking sheet. Repeat until all the dough is used, you should get 12 cookies. Using your hand, gently press down on each ball just to flatten slightly then use a potato masher to gently press down again so you get a design on top and they go a little more flat but don't over press!Pop them into the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the edges are just turning lightly golden. Remove from the oven and let them cool on the tray for 10 minutes to firm up. Now transfer them to a wire rack to cool (or eat them while nice and warm!)

♥

Nutritional Information: per cookie (with the full amount of chocolate chips)

Thursday, 30 April 2015

This was one of those recipes that came out of utter desperation - a sudden crazy craving for peanut butter cookies! I've always loved a good peanut butter cookie, it was always one of my go-to cookie recipes when I was a child - yes, baking at a young age I was :-)

Here I decided to throw in some chocolate chips for obvious yum reasons and I am so happy with the outcome; seriously one of the best PB cookies I've had, vegan or not! Perfect texture and flavour, dead simple and ready in no time....yay! Hope you like them :-)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Yields 12 cookies¼ cup vegan butter, softened¼ cup smooth peanut butter¼ cup caster or granulated sugar¼ cup light brown sugar¼ tsp vanilla extract½ cup + 2 Tbsp plain flour½ tsp baking soda¼ tsp salt¼ heaping cup vegan chocolate chips (50g)Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and line a baking sheet with baking paper.In a large bowl cream together the butter and peanut butter until well mixed. Add the sugars and vanilla and beat until well mixed and slightly fluffy. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon until no more flour shows then stir in the chocolate chips. The mixture should look slightly crumbly by hold together if you give it a squeeze.Take about tablespoons full of the mixture and squeeze and roll into a ball and place on the baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough, you should get about 12 cookies here. Now take a potato masher and give each one a gentle stamp just to flatten slightly - don't take your frustrations out on them here and pound them into oblivion :-) Just a little stamp down!Pop them in the oven and bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until lightly golden brown, especially around the edges. Remove from the oven, they will be soft so leave them on the tray for 5 minutes to firm up then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.

Note: the 2 missing cookies here were NOT from me being an impatient greedy so and so. Sadly 2 slid off the tray and straight on the floor when I was moving the tray - oh the humanity!

Now, I just slide the baking paper with the cookies onto my wire rack. Let cool slightly and either enjoy warm with melty chocolate loveliness or wait until they are fully cool. Lovely with a glass of ice cold almond milk :-)

Thursday, 16 April 2015

This was lovely - light and flaky puff pastry spread with almond feta and topped with caramelized red onion and soft and tender thyme glazed carrots. I was inspired here by this Carrot Tart Tatin dish on BBC Good Food. Like most people I am drawn to anything in pastry but I loved the idea of carrots taking the centre stage here as they are usually confined to a side dish or are just another component like in a stew. And why shouldn't they take centre stage? Carrots are awesome!

Now, I made a few changes to the tart tatin recipe - both with the ingredients and cooking method. I've replaced the reblochon cheese with the awesome almond feta, I omitted the sun-dried tomatoes as I just didn't see them going in this and instead of making a tart tatin which is an upside down tart, I made a regular, right side up tart :-)

I also kept thinking of other flavours that go really well with carrots and considered adding them to the tart. Things like walnuts, orange and parsley for example. I was thinking some chopped roasted walnuts in the tart would work well or even some orange zest stirred into the almond feta would be nice. In the end I decided to add all those flavours to the side salad instead which worked reallywell. It's a wonderful accompaniment to this tart with mixed baby leaf, roasted walnuts, fresh parsley, orange segments and my go-to balsamic dressing. A wonderful meal!

~ Recipe Notes ~

• The size of this tart is really up to you, I unintentionally made mine smaller than I wanted. What you see in the photos here only served 4 people and they were pretty small slices at that. You might prefer to make this rectangular as that is how ready rolled puff pastry comes. It would be a better size and that way there would be no leftover pastry to waste. In my head however this was a round tart so I went that way but it's totally up to you. The amount of carrots given here will be enough either way....and if you have leftover carrots they reheat just fine or throw them in a stew. If you have too many onions they go great in the side salad!

• The first time I made this I used the almond feta after it has been drained but before it's baked. This way it is much easier to spread onto the pastry and it still gets baked in the oven. The second time I made the tart I did use already baked feta. This was harder to spread onto the pastry but I do think it had slightly better flavour. So basically, you can use it either way! :-)

• Most store bought puff pastry is vegan but of course, check your labels as all brands are different.• Apologies for not providing the nutritional information on this one but it will entirely depend on what size you make the tart - particularly with how much pastry and almond feta you use. FYI -my small tart worked out at 298 calories for 1 slice out of 4.

Carrot and Thyme Tart:

375g peeled carrots1 tsp light brown sugar4 sprigs thyme leaves 2 Tbsp vegan butter1 red onion, sliced (can use white as well)Freshly ground black pepperAlmond feta, drained but not baked (see recipe notes above)Ready rolled puff pastryPreheat the oven to 180C / 350F with a baking sheet inside.Melt 1 Tbsp of vegan butter in a frying pan and add the sliced red onion. Add about 9 grinds of freshly ground black pepper and fry on low heat until very soft. Pop a lid on now and again and if it starts to look dry add about 1 Tbsp of hot water and allow that to cook off. When the onions are very soft and lightly caramelized transfer to a bowl and set aside.Put the carrots, other tablespoon of butter, sugar and thyme leaves in a wide shallow frying pan with a lid. Note: ignore my photo here and add the thyme leaves not the whole sprig as I discovered they are hard to remove after cooking!

Add enough water till it just comes up to the carrots.

Cover, bring to a simmer then cover and cook until the carrots are almost tender. Remove the lid, turn up the heat and cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the carrots are soft and lightly glazed looking. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Unroll the puff pastry and either leave it as a rectangle or cut out a circle (mine was 23cm). Place on a sheet of baking paper. Score another smaller circle inside, leaving a 1½” border (or do the same with the rectangle). Make sure you don't cut all the way through here, you just want to score it. Pierce the inner circle with a fork to stop it rising while baking.

Spread the ‘forked’ area evenly with some of the almond feta, a thin spread will do as it's so flavourful.

...then scatter over the onions. Note to self: cooked red onions can look like worms....don't use in photos! lol...

Lay the carrots over top in a nice design - make sure you overlap them well as they will shrink up in the oven a bit.

Lastly, carefully brush the top of all the carrots with some melted butter, this will help stop them drying out in the oven. (I just melted some in the same pan I just cooked the carrots in.)

Remove the preheated baking sheet from the oven and carefully slide the baking paper with the tart onto the baking sheet. Pop it all into the oven and bake for 25 mins or until the pastry is golden, puffed around the edges and cooked through.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand for a few mins. Transfer to a cake stand or serving plate. Serve warm with the Baby Leaf, Roasted Walnut and Orange Salad with Balsamic Dressing.

Baby Leaf, Roasted Walnut and Orange Salad with Balsamic Dressing:

80g mixed baby leaf: spinach, lambs lettuce, red chard etc...

handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, torn

1 - 2 navel oranges, segmented

50g walnuts

1/4 tsp olive oil

pinch of sea salt

Dressing:

1 ½ Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

½ Tbsp balsamic dressing

½ tsp Dijon mustard

1/8 tsp sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F. Using your hands toss the 1/4 tsp of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt with the walnuts until fully coated. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast for 5 minutes, giving the pan a shake halfway through. Remove and let cool.

Mix together the lettuce, parsley, orange segments and cooled walnuts. Whisk together the dressing until smooth then pour over and toss it all together. Serve immediately.